Monday, 25 June 2012

You
had been advised in business to start small, no matter how small, just start.
Is there a problem with this approach? Yes! Don’t get me wrong, there is
nothing wrong starting from a point to grow your business, but starting well is
better. Does it mean starting big? No, it means starting small but running the
business with the same principles successful businesses strive on. Principles like
good book keeping, effective and efficient in managing tasks, punctuality and
commitment to service. Whatever you need to make your potential clients or
customers to take you serious, do it.

It
sounds weird, but you are setting a standard for your business. This is an area
were most SMEs default when managing their business. Don’t wait to grow big
before you create a culture for your business. Successful businesses excel on
principles that create a standard for their businesses.

Starting
your business well helps you to

Be focused on the big picture

Create the discipline that is obtained in the corporate world in
your business.

Set a culture that will sustain the company to maturity

Helps you to look at your business beyond you

As your business grows, you can expand as you desire. Always
bear in mind that the business world is a jungle where only the smart survives.
So, if you want to be taken seriously, you must
manage your business the way professionals will do.

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Good managers who
earn high wages are paid to make good decisions for the company. What is
considered their worth is actually the worth of their decisions; this is
because good decisions earn more. When people trust a leader, they simply trust
his judgments. People come to believe in them because of previous decisions
that yielded positive results.

Today, relying on
guts and instincts for your decisions can be very disastrous. It does not only
waste your resources, but are prone to fail.And when you fail several times in making good decisions, your decisions
lose value. You need an evidence/objective based system to boost the
credibility of your decision making.

Here are a few tips
to help you boost the worth of your decisions:

Gather
relevant data

Always
support your claim with relevant data. Any decision you want to make that
cannot be sufficiently supported with evidence, is likely to lose its
credibility. For instance, if you want to make an investment decision, you may
want to look at the previous and current performances of the business, those
managing it, and their capabilities etc.

Make
the connections

When
you have gathered the relevant data, check to see if there is any connection
linking them up, does it follow a logical sequence? At this point, cause-and-effect
reasoning plays a vital role. Can the excellent performance of a business over
the years be attributed to good management, or are there other factors to look
out for? There has to be a relationship between the various data collected.

Research,
Research, Research

Explore
the world around you, ask questions, and observe happenings in every situation.
The information you gather from these exercises can boost the worth of your
decisions. So far, conducting researches is still the best means of bridging
the gap between what is known and what is not known. Never stop researching, it
guides your decisions

A systematic
decision making process can help you to achieve a valuable and worthy outcomes.
Make your decisions count.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

I was watching the formal opening of one of Apple’s
shop in china, and I was surprise how customers can love a brand so much as to
travel thousands of miles just to be the first to experience the grand opening.
Initially, it did not make a lot of sense to me but when I saw the passion and
the love they have for Apple and its products, I knew it wasn’t just the
quality of the product but the kind of customer experience the company has
created.

For me, that was another level of brand loyalty. Having
your customers love your company and product, and above all, going home with
that experience they can’t get from anywhere else is they whole essence of
business. And it starts from making the customers satisfied.

When customers love you, they stick with you, brag
about you and will be ready to defend you no matter the situation. To achieve
this,

Create
a company culture that revolves round your customers

Pay
attention to their needs

Proffer
solutions to their problems

Build a quality customer relationship.

·Create a quality customer experience. Give them a
reason to come back.

Having a quality
product and a compelling marketing campaign is not enough, anyone can do that. The
customers want a relationship and an experience with you. They value that more
that just the product. That will make your customers fall in love with your
company and product

7 years ago when I learnt how to prepare a
professional business plan, I considered it a major key to business success
especially for start-ups. Today, having helped a lot of people prepare one, and
having failed in business before even with my ‘wonderful’ business plan, I now
have a new perspective about business plan and why banks may not give you
credit as a starter.

1.Evidence:

They want prove that what you are
bringing to the table works, they don’t want to experiment with their money.

2.Expansion:

Most banks want to give you money
to expand i.e. build on an existing business not to start up. For a business
that has not been tested, you will need to convince them beyond reasonable
doubt that it will work.

3.Experience:

They want to make sure you have the
required experience to compete favorably in the market. They would like at
least 6 months experience before they can part with their money.

Fund providers prefer you starting up first before
coming up with a business plan.

So before you design a formal business plan, start
and see how far you can go. Even top entrepreneurs in the developed world never
had a written business plan at start up. Try managing the business for at least
1 – 3 months before approaching banks for a loan.